Arms of Hood, Viscount Bridport: Azure, a fret argent on a chief or three crescents sable,[1]
Arthur Wellington Alexander Nelson Hood, 2nd Viscount BridportCB (15 December 1839 – 28 March 1924) of
Guernsey,
Channel Islands, was a
British Army officer.
He became a captain in the
25th Foot in 1857, retiring from the army in 1870. He served as a
Justice of the Peace for Somerset, and was made a Companion of the
Order of the Bath on 10 May 1892. He served as a Conservative MP for
West Somerset (1868–83). In 1898 his father sold the family seat and estate at
Cricket St Thomas in Somerset to the chocolate manufacturer Francis Fry (d.1918), the estate having become heavily mortgaged.[3] In retirement he was Colonel of the
West Somerset Yeomanry Cavalry (1872–95). He succeeded to his father's English titles in 1904, aged 65, but his father bequeathed the Sicilian title
Duke of Bronte and its accompanying large estate, to his younger son
Sir Alexander Nelson Hood, 5th Duke of Bronte (1854–1937), who died unmarried.
Marriage and issue
On 4 April 1872 he married Lady Maria Georgiana Julia Fox-Strangways, a daughter of Hon. John George Charles Fox-Strangways (by his wife Amelia Marjoribanks) and a sister of
Henry Fox-Strangways, 5th Earl of Ilchester (1847–1905). By his wife he had issue including:
Lt. Hon. Maurice Henry Nelson Hood (1891-1915), son and
heir apparent of the 2nd Viscount, killed aged 34 in action at
Gallipoli
Lt. Hon. Maurice Henry Nelson Hood (1881-1915),[4] the set 2nd and eldest surviving son and
heir apparent, who predeceased his father having been killed in action aged 34 during
World War I at
Gallipoli. He married Ethel Rose Kendall (c.1890-1931), an actress under the stage-name "Eileen Orme",[5] a daughter of Charles Kendall of Wokingham in Berkshire[6] and a cousin of the actress
Denise Orme (1885-1960) (Jessie Smither, Duchess of Leinster).[7] He was the father of:
He died on 8 Mar 1924 at Surprise Cottage, Route De Passeur, in the parish of
Vale, Guernsey, near
L'Ancresse Beach and golf club, Channel Islands, and was buried at
Vale Parish Church, St Michel du Valle.[9]